This invention relates to a method and an apparatus for inspecting (i.e., detecting and/or identifying) bacteria and other microbes.
With respect to food (all kinds of food including meat, sea product such as fish, etc.) to be put on the market, it is customary that the material for such food is preliminarily processed into a predetermined condition in a factory and then brought into market. In the factory, the processed food is inspected as to whether it is contaminated with pathogenic bacteria and other microbes. In a typical conventional method for detecting microbes, etc. contained in food, target microbes are picked up from a sample and cultivated in an incubator for a prescribed time, so that the cultivated microbes can visually be measured and detected. To carry out this correctly, however, a special technique accompanied with a long time experience is required.
Recently, a method using a computer was proposed. In this proposal, an image of a medium to be inspected, taken into a computer is binalized to calculate a determining level for inspection. However, this method is encountered with such a problem that even slight differences in angle of illumination, direction, etc. of a light source with respect to the medium can immediately adversely affect a correct determination of the medium because the image is instantaneously binalized when it is taken into the computer. Consequently, the result of inspection is varied, thus providing an inaccurate inspection result.
Furthermore, since the correct determining level cannot be obtained, it is difficult to carry out a correct inspection under the present circumstance. Moreover, there is involved in the convention method such an additional problem that even if food is contaminated with microbes in one way or others (i.e., mere attachment to the food, potential presence in the food, generation in the food) which could later be hazardous to human, most of such pathogenic microbes do not show their actual figure until after the passage of a predetermined time. For this reason, it often happens that after the food processed in a factory is carried out for delivery, pathogenic microbes are propagated and when the food is delivered to consumers, those who eat the food are suffered from food poisoning.
Moreover, the conventional techniques for inspecting microbes required long time for obtaining a result of inspection. However, recently, owing to improvement of the inspecting techniques such as the direct observing method through a microscope, the membrane dyeing method, the electrical impedance method, the fluorescent dyeing method, the fluorescent probing method, the bioluminescence measuring method, etc. which are employed for inspecting microbes present in processing food, semi-processed food, processed food, etc., a rapid inspection could somehow be obtained. However, even those improved inspecting techniques have many advantages and shortcomings in respect of rapidity, the range of inspection, economic efficiency, etc. and are still far from complete satisfaction. In some of the inspecting techniques, a specific microbe can be identified but actually, in most of them, it is difficult to identify microbes.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for inspecting a medium such as microbes, etc., in which an image of a medium cultivated in a short time (about 5 to 6 hours) are separated, for example, into the three primary colors and then, histogram, color and hue are calculated, so that a growth efficiency for anticipating the growth of a colony of microbes and a feature efficiency for determining the features specific to each microbe are established, then, the data preliminarily calculated in the same procedure as the above and accumulated are searched and compared for identification, and then a state of propagation of those microbes after the passage of time (24 hrs., 48 hrs, etc.) generally required for cultivating the microbes utilizing the growth efficiency, etc. is anticipated, thereby a state of propagation of the microbes after the passage of a predetermined time can easily be known in advance in spite of short time.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for inspecting a medium such as microbes, etc., in which the degree of accuracy for identifying microbes is enhanced, an image of such microbes is correctly determined and photographed, and devices for inspecting a medium are housed in a case as one group, thereby not only determination of the medium and accumulation of the result of inspection can be made automatically but also the bacteria in the medium can be reduced in number and sterilized easily.
According to the present invention, there is provided a method and an apparatus for inspecting microbes, etc., characterized in that in order to preliminarily know a state of propagation, for example, of bacteria (respiring bacteria) after the passage of a predetermined time, an image of a medium obtained from a foodstuff such as food including drinking water and a processed material is separated into the three primary colors in a computer, histogram, hue and color are calculated for each primary color and compared with data of each kind of bacteria preliminarily accumulated according to the above-mentioned procedure so that the features specific to the bacteria are extracted for identification and an anticipated state of propagation of the bacteria after the passage of a predetermined time is calculated, so that a state required for propagation of the identified bacteria after the passage of a predetermined time can preliminarily be detected make anticipate in a short time.
From another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a method for inspecting microbes, etc., in which an image of a medium to be inspected collected from foodstuff such as food including drinking water and a processed material thereof is separated into the three primary colors, then, chromatic information of histogram, color and hue for each primary color are calculated, and the information thus obtained is compared with integrated data obtained by combining second data of generic information of microbes, etc. with first data of microbes, etc. which are preliminarily accumulated in the same procedure as the above, so that the features specific to microbes are extracted for identification of the kind of the microbes, and a state of propagation of the microbes after the passage of a predetermined time is anticipated, thereby a state of propagation of the microbes after the passage of a predetermined time required for cultivation of microbes in the medium can preliminarily be detected make anticipate in a short time. Also, there is a provision of provision of a phtographing device for accurately photogrphing an image of microbes by preliminarily subjecting the medium to dyeing treatment and light emititting treatment, where necessary. Also, there is a further provision of an inspecting device, in which related devices are housed in a casing as one group in order to inspect the medium, thereby not only determination of the medium and accumulation of the result of inspection can be made automatically but also the bacteria in the medium can be reduced in number and sterilized.